Monday, August 28, 2006

Tiger prowl is getting stronger

I cannot think of the words to describe how incredible it is to watch Tiger Woods play a game that I have attempted to play for years.

It’s even more absurd to think that he played average at best on Saturday and Sunday in Akron at the Firestone Country Club and NO ONE could beat him.

I have had the good fortune to play at Firestone a few years ago when Elizabeth’s cousin got married in Cleveland. We played it about two weeks before the same event. The one thing I remember was my brother-in-law’s opening drive on the first hole.

It’s a straight hole – wide open with nothing but a great look at the hole right in front of your eyes. He stood up, and nailed a great drive down the left center of the fairway. It started to leak a little and took one bounce into the rough. One bounce – can’t be that bad right? We walked for five minutes and couldn’t find the ball. Great drive – one bounce and gone.

Why do I make this point? Well, for most of the weekend, Tiger was not only finding his ball in the rough (he had a little more help than we did) but he then was able to hit the ball out of that trash onto and towards the green. He kept plugging away and fighting himself but he kept surviving.

Many of the other players had better looks at the hole, but no one could beat him when he was scrambling.

It’s insane.

Aren’t any of these guys good enough to close? Aren’t any of these guys looking at the board and seeing Tiger hit four bogeys in a row on Saturday and saying, “this could be my week.”

Doesn’t matter.

He is Tiger Woods and they ain’t.

In ten years, he has won 52 times and 12 majors. The other four members of the top five in the world have won 52 times as well and nine majors.

Watching Tiger is like watching Picasso paint. Like watching Jordan hit a jumper. Like watching Gretzky on a breakaway. Like watching Bernstein conduct the Boston Pops. It’s just magic.

He ties Byron Nelson for tour wins and is behind Arnold Palmer by 10 tournaments four fourth all-time. All of this in 10 years.